“I want you to tell them exactly what you told me.” Sir Swift’s deep voice filled the church in Luthering.

A group of soldiers—swaddled in towels and bloodstained rags—shivered as they sipped hot soup, throwing glances at Watcher Hill, Professor Jules, Alex and Isolde. They looked like they'd hadn’t slept in days, their eyes were unfocused, with bags below them confirming the tale.

Their body language screamed of nervousness as they hardly met anyone’s gaze.

Sir Sean Swift blinked rapidly, avoiding eye contact with Professor Jules and Alex.

The General of Thameland, spoke to the soldiers, “It's alright,” he said, making his voice as calm and non-threatening as he could. “We’re here to listen, so please, go ahead.”

Two soldiers looked at one another uncertainly, then the older one, a woman with white hair—her surcoat bearing a knightly crest—spoke up.

“I am Dame Tefienne, I can assure you that I have seen a lot in my career, and that very little surprises me anymore, but what I’m about to tell you is far stranger than anything I’ve ever seen before. It might even sound to someone who doesn’t know me like the stuff of witchcraft or madness,” she said. “But I neither dabble in witchcraft or am touched by insanity, so I ask that you listen before you judge me since I can hardly believe the occurrences myself.”

“Please, go ahead,” Professor Jules said.

The knight swallowed. “We were riding to Luthering after we’d suffered a loss in a battle at the Fork of Three Points. That's where the River Gard splits in two; the King’s Road crosses it at Harding Bridge. We’d received a report that a dungeon core was found there, so that is where we went. The battle went poorly, as I just said. Very poorly. The information we had said that bone-chargers had taken the bridge, but in fact, silence spiders were also there, hidden beneath it. Once we got stuck in battling the bone chargers, the silence spiders ambushed us…it was pure slaughter.”

“We'll take care of those dungeons,” Alex promised.

“Thank you,” she said, holding her cup in a shaking hand. “We fought back, but too many of us had died in that ambush, and our numbers were no match for both bone charges and silence spiders at that point. We decided to retreat back to our camp…but found chitterers milling about and destroying it when we got there. So, that’s when we struck out for the closest settlement, which happened to be Luthering.”

“Then what happened?” Alex asked.

“Bandits,” she growled. “Those vultures are still here in the realm, stealing whatever they can. They picked up our trail with their hunting dogs and started following us. For an entire day and night we rode, with them harassing us without mercy. They hunted us through the trees, and if we turned to face them, they would run.”

“Trying to run you down like a pack of wolves, it sounds,” Sir Swift said, gruffly. “Likely hoping to exhaust you and your mounts.”

“And we did finally tire.” She grimaced. “Then they set upon us, surrounding us on all sides and corralling us in a forest clearing. We fought hard, but most of us had been wounded at Harding Bridge. But, here is where the strange part comes in. We should have lost to them and would have lost, and none of us would be here right now if…if it weren’t for Ravener-spawn.”

Alex, Isolde, and Professor Jules looked at each other, then back at the knight.

“Excuse me ma’am, but are you saying Ravener-spawn killed the bandits?” Watcher Hill asked.

“No.” The knight shook her head. “If they'd killed them, then I would have assumed they were doing what Ravener-spawn do, and just happened to kill our attackers. But…they didn't kill them. Silence spiders came from the woods, and confronted the bandits, then only slashed at their hands to knock their weapons away, and frighten their horses.”

“…what?” Alex murmured, confused. “They didn’t hurt them?”

“Not that I could see,” she said. “And—when the bandits looked truly terrified—a Hive-queen came from the woods and entered the clearing, but didn’t attack them. As you can imagine, that put high terror into those brigands, so they gathered their wits and fled, having lost not one of their number.”

“Huh…” Alex said. “Then what happened? Did the spawn attack you?”

“No,” Dame Tefienne said. “They just watched us for a long time, then the Hive-Queen came forward. I raised my lance—ready to die and meet Uldar—”

Alex had to fight back a wince.

“—but all she did was drop a slaughtered boar on the ground in front of us, along with a bag of grain—and scuttled away.”

“What?” Professor Jules said. “Were the boar and grain laced with poison?”

“We couldn't tell—our priest, Father Owens—died at Harding Bridge,” she said. “He might've been able to detect poison with his miracles…but the rest of us had no way of knowing. The moment those Ravener-spawn left, a soldier tied the boar and grain to his saddle and we made our way here. The meat’s probably rotten by now, whether it was poisoned or not.”

“It wasn't,” Sir Swift said. “Our priests checked it over and there wasn’t a trace of poison in it. They also purified it.”

“I…see…” the other knight muttered. “Strange happenings…”

“It's a miracle!” cried a soldier. “Uldar and the Traveller have been working miracles in our favour! The Traveller is his champion, and I've been praying to her from the moment we were saved. She once saved my brother, too. Moved him out of the way of a venom-walker’s poisoned lash! She continues to bless us!”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“That she does,” Alex said with enthusiasm, though he was rather confused. He had no idea what was going on, but he didn’t let that stop him using the opportunity to get every bit of faith channelled to Hannah. “She's been working hard for all of us, I bet she had something to do with what happened.” His attention returned to Dame Tefienne. “What happened to the Ravener-spawn, you said they left?”

“As soon as they dropped the boar and grain, they watched us for a bit…then just melted into the trees. I thought they would attack us, but…no,” Tefienne said. “I can't see it as anything other than them saving us, intentionally.”

“That’s not the only report of that sort of behaviour from Ravener-spawn,” Sean said. “Just this morning, the army messenger came through, telling us to be on the watch for it. This sort of thing’s been going on all over Thameland, from the sound of it.”

“The Traveller works in mysterious ways,” Alex said. “She's been fighting hard for all of us.”

Sir Sean winced, looking away from the young General of Thameland. “I've been hearing reports of her miracles too. Maybe this was her doing. I'll remember my prayers tonight.”

“Very good,” Professor Jules said. “Would you mind if we examined the boar and grain?”

###

“No poison…or any other toxins…” Professor Jules pulled a spike—Alex had retrieved for her from the Research Castle—from the boar’s carcass, checking the numbers on its crystalline display. Next, she jabbed it into the sack of grain. “Nothing here either. We’d need to do more tests in the lab to rule out some of the more subtle toxins…but at this point, it seems this food is perfectly safe.”

“What in all the elements is going on?” Isolde asked.

“I wish I knew,” Alex said.

“It’s a puzzle,” Watcher Hill nodded.

The little group stood in an empty house with the boar and bag of grain, on a table before them. Sir Sean had ordered it sealed, only allowing priests—and now Professor Jules’ party—inside to conduct their tests.

Though they were guards outside, Alex, Isolde, Professor Jules and Watcher Hill were alone with the boar’s carcass. Watcher Hill was examining it visually. “It looks like it was killed by a slash to the throat, then was allowed to bleed out. The blood’s been drained…which looks like this meat was intended to be eaten by mortals.”

“What in all the hells?” Alex looked at the sack of grain. “That bag looks like it belonged to the army, like for rations.”

“Maybe it was taken from an encampment,” Isolde suggested. “But why would Ravener-spawn be hunting boar to feed the army as well as giving them back their own rations?”

“It's odd for them to be hunting animals at all,” Alex said. “They mostly leave wild beasts alone…and…”

Something about that bothered him.

“What is it?” Isolde asked.

“No,” he said. “It's just that, I was remembering an image I saw in the dungeon core. It was horrible. Anyway, back to the point: Ravener-spawn don't kill wild animals as far as we know, but we know for sure that they don’t help humans.”

“The idea of silence-spiders playing ‘peacemaker’ is absurd,” Professor Jules agreed. “All of the information we've gathered suggests that this is unprecedented.”

“It’s shocking,” Alex said.

Isolde’s voice dropped low, as she glanced at the door. “Do you truly think this is Hannah’s doing?”

“I hope so,” Alex said. “I really do. But I don't know…it doesn't make sense for the Ravener to be doing this.”

“Maybe it wants to make peace?” Watcher Hill suggested, her voice also low. “Now that it knows what it knows…maybe it doesn't see the need to fight anymore.”

“It seemed to want to fight me,” Alex said. “Remember, it tried to blow us up using the core. Oh wait, you weren't there for that.”

“No…and I thank Roal I wasn’t,” Watcher Hill said.

“You could be right, Mr. Roth. It would be strange for the Ravener to do something benevolent. Is there any capability that Hannah would have that would allow her to do something like this, using Ravener-spawn?” Professor Jules asked.

“Not as far as I know,” he shook his head. “But maybe her powers have really grown. All I know is that something’s changed, and…while this is a nice change…I’ve got a bad feeling it’s not going to last. We need the Ravener dead as soon as yesterday.”

“Easier said than done,” Isolde said. “We cannot find it nor do we have a way to shut it down.”

“Hmmmm.” Alex’s mind went back to the lab, and what he’d felt in the dungeon core. Mana flowed between the core and the Ravener. Mana and fear. Maybe he could use that. “I'm going to talk to Professor Val’Rok about something. I have to speak to him to get permission to challenge the Exam for Credit for his course anyway, and I can’t help but wonder if mana manipulation might be the solution here. If we could manipulate the mana in those connections between the Ravener and its cores, we might be able to use that.”

“Mhm, yours is not a bad idea at all,” Isolde said. “Do you already have an appointment with him?”

“Tomorrow,” Alex said. “Today I’ll work in the lab and see if I can figure out why Ravener-spawn are turning into guardian engeli—” He paused, his eyes growing wide. “Wait, this could help!”

“What could help?” Isolde asked.

“Astral engeli are good at detecting divinity,” Alex said. “I could summon some, and teleport around Thameland with them to search for the Ravener—” his voice dropped. “—and a certain corpse and that corpse’s chair. We could keep looking until the engeli are pulled back to the celestial planes. I could keep doing that until we either find something, or we search as much of the island as we can.”

“That sounds like a good use of time and resources…with your ability to teleport, and their ability to fly, your plan could be quite efficient,” Professor Jules said. “Between them, and the priests, covering all of Thameland could be completed with little trouble.”

“Exactly,” Alex said. “And the engeli can also be searching while I'm working in the lab, or working with the other Heroes, and you—” He looked at Isolde. “Thundar, and Khalik, to get you prepared for…for…” He paused.

“What is it?” Isolde asked.

“It’s only that, I saw something,” Alex said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I saw one of you-know-who’s cullings in images in the dungeon core…it was horrible. There were all these monsters, and all these people being slaughtered. With what I saw in there? I don’t think we're ready for that. Maybe if we had Baelin and Asmaldestre with us… but the rest of us, just as we are? I don't know if we can beat what I saw. Not without a lot of people dying.”

“Then you will have your work cut out for you when you train us,” Isolde said. “I do not plan to die for this, so we must be ready.”

“Yeah, I don’t intend to see you die for this, believe me,” Alex vowed. “It'll take a lot, but that’s where the Mark of the General should help.”

“Maybe the Ravener will like helping us,” Watcher Hill said, looking at the boar. “It's already started, maybe it won't stop. I know that seems unlikely, but…with its creator gone, maybe it lacks direction…who knows what it will do next?”

“No direction…” Isolde muttered. “Maybe that answers the question of its behaviour. Perhaps it is confused, looking to make sense of what it should do? I wonder if since it now knows of its creator’s fate, if it must act without any guidance, ifit does need guidance?”

“Huh,” Alex said. “An entity driven by a single purpose for thousands of years suddenly realises that purpose is gone. Maybe it'll act contrary from now on, hand out dungeon core essence, and generally live with us in peace. Sounds nice, but I don’t think we’d be that lucky.”

He looked at Isolde. “Let's hope we get a chance to graduate before it stops feeling charitable.”